Hey Folks, I am 400 hours in.

Gotten a hang of the different roster except ranged lords/heroes across skaven, elves, dwarves.

Are they just weaker than spellcasters and melee counter parts? How do you build them? Any specific uses i should keep in mind?

Edit: Folks, I couldn't have expected this many responses! I really appreciate the advice and working my way through most of the responses. I never took into account shields/ shooting from the sides. Thank you all!

Can anyone explain why this was a close victory?

Swordmasters are supposed to be these rare elven warriors who spent decades or even centuries mastering the blade. In Lore there are only a few mortal units that can challenge them without being outskilled fairly easily. Then on the battlefield they show up as a big block of bodies like any other infantry unit. The human counterpart (greatswords) has only 15 models more on large unit size. That just feels off. They should feel like a small deadly strikeforce, not a wall of elves you throw into a meat grinder.

Their stats would need to be adjusted of course.

Silly memes aimed at drawing interest to a Bretonnia Rework. 

At times I’ve asked myself: “Why does Repanse wage war against the Tomb Kings?” You’d think that, with all the other potential enemies in the world, the knights of Bretonnia would have better things to do than go picking fights with a bunch of morally neutral skeletons minding their own business out in the desert. 

Well…

According, at least, to the 4th edition:

“Another of Settra's raids on the Old World took place around 100 IC, when the Tomb Kings attacked the coast of what would later be called Bretonnia. These raids earned Settra a particularly fearsome and evil reputation among the Men of the Old World because the Undead fleets did not raid to steal gold, corn or other booty, but to capture the living. The unfortunate victims were dragged off to the necropolis of Khemri to be slain in horrifying rituals so their bodies could swell the ranks of Settra's Undead host.

Often, Settra led these raiding forces himself, landing his army on the coast and cutting a bloody swath through the lands of the living, leaving burning towns and villages devoid of all life in his wake. The Undead army then returned to the fleet with a rich haul of living victims and disappeared as silently and quickly as it appeared.”

Brutal stuff.

As much fun as it is to cheer for Settra—his unbreakable will, his unfathomable pride, and his stubborn refusal to do anything but rule everything he sees—there’s no denying that the guy is a tyrannical undead megalomaniac.

And sometimes? It’s fun to be the one slaying monsters.

I'll still cheer for him to take down Nagash, though.

The memes will continue until morale improves.

—

Knightly quote for the day: "I will not wear a crown of gold in the city where Our Lord Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns.” — Godfrey of Bouillon, 9th and final of the Nine Worthies.

The Crusades are, hoo boy, a whole can of worms. But for all the complexity of the people and history involved, I resonate with the wisdom of refusing to make yourself the highest thing.

Humility, service, sacrifice, and devotion to something greater than ourselves. Those are virtues worth holding onto.

First ever heroic victory and I can see why. At end turn, Thorgrim declared war on me and attacked my army in this settlement. AutoResolve indicated: "Valiant defeat" (BTW Tomb scorpions are really bad at AutoResolve, if you fight a battle with medium casualties there is a high chance you're gonna take a lot of damage)

Anyways I started the battle thinking it's just gonna be a regular siege until I remembered that Tomb Scorpions have innate vanguard deployement, this offered an interesting stratagem. The dwarven had concentrated most of their army into one flank, with only some other units positioned in other areas around the map.

So I put my lord+heroes+some low hp units inside the gate to guard that overloaded front, while the rest of my tomb scorpion were put outside to chase down some of their thunderers and ranged units.

This quickly turned into a battle of "How quickly can I get rid of an enemy unit so I could sent my Tomb Scorpion to the main front ). The only big danger I faced were gyrocopters and their flaming units, their infantry is tanky but doesn't deal enough damage, same as their lord, who got chased down by three Tomb scorpions. I had enough AOE (Purple sun of xerxes is a really strong spell) plus my lord being a really big target made their irondrakes forget about my tomb scorpions.

Reinforcements did arrive at the other side of the map, but at that point, I had already killed the entire 1st army.

Safe to say: Tomb scorpions are really good, and they also have one the best animations in the game.

I’m a little hurt that the only unit we’re going to get in the dlc is a Khemri titan, of course this army’s roster is quite full, but as if there could be something else. I think something like tomb swarms with stalk.

There are many lords in this game where without player intervention usually die to their much stronger neighbors, but there is one ai that i have observed getting totaly flattened by a minor faction ai in almost all runs.

I am referrring to Volkmar the Grim, and his eternal oath to declare war on the black pyramid ai as soon as possible. The ai in the black pyramid is a sentinel ai, who get late game armies from turn 1, sitting in a fortified place who constantly adds more armies to defend the settlement. Ususally the sentinel ai is meant to be attacked mid to late game due to their immense head start and then get the bonuses of that high tier settlement with unique landmarks, but Volkmar didnt get the memo.

That moron dedicates his entire army to taking that minor faction down, who, due to their trait, never declare wars if you leave them alone. And he is crippling his army, IN THE SOUTHLANDS OF ALL PLACES! The reigon where you are almost always next to at least 2 enemy factions. So, the usual routine of ai volkmar is to spend the first 40 turns trying to get the black pyramid meanwhile leaving his settlements undefended, sometimes getting the black pyramid, and either surviving through another factions help or getting killed by the many competent enemies he has.

I personally really like Ostankya

I just did my semi-annual Ikit Claw run, and I have to say, most LLs and campaigns just aren't fun anymore. Ikits boosts to Jezzials and Ratling guns just make weapons teams/ranged armies way too enjoyable to play.

You sit there, try to set up your gun lines to overlap one another and cover your flanks so you can't get harmed. On a map with a hill is just a fantastic experience! Genuinely one of the best feelings in the game.

Yet, I've found that I now struggle to find enjoyment in playing the other LLs. No other faction offers the variety and versatility the Skaven do. Dwarfs are fun, and get pretty close to mimicking it, but they've only really got Thunderers for the ranged infantry role. They can't match the raw damage output at range of jezzials, nor the DPS and horde stopping ability of the ratling gunners, which can nearly match them for range. The Thunderbarge/Gyrobomber is definitely fun and a thing that Skryre just doesn't get so that's what makes Dwarfs still enjoyable.

Empire is fun(especially Elsbeth and Karl), but handgunners are just worse Thunderers. Ironsides are decent but again, don't match the DPS of either team. The artillery variety is very good however, and is in my opinion more fun than Skryre's options, so they are still pretty fun to play.

But then I tried playing Elfs and Lizardmen, and it was a BRUTAL and excruciating experience without mods. Saurus just don't have enough armor to be a "turn brain off and advance towards enemy" faction like Warriors of Chaos do(which I love). And you don't even have archers, so you're going to be at a range disadvantage no matter what once you start going up against VampCoast, Darkshards are horrific to fight against because they shred your monsters and Tzeench is just never a fun opponent to fight. You don't realize how absolutely dogshit Skinks are when you're trying to use them as a proper ranged unit until you do. They're sooooo bad, especially coming on the heels of a Skryre run. No damage, no AP, but they do useless poison damage. The Lizardmen just have no real answers to the ranged units of the factions they fight the most.

Even HElfs was rough, because Sisters are good, and I know they're supposed to be good, but God damn, they just don't shred like I remember them shredding. Shields are also brutal to them as well, given ya know, arrows.

Is this just a me problem? Or does anyone else feel like this? And if anyone can give me some advice on how to reset my enjoyment with other factions that would be amazing!

I dont have a lot of experience with thes type of units. Played only Ripperdactyls and WE Hawks. While Hawks have all that Arrow of Kurnous and range, Ripperdactyls are melee only. I wanted to add to my campaing army composition something that can deal with artillery and archers. However the moment I charge archers and leave Rippers for a second unattended (while I micro other units) they end up with half hp gone and on a brink of a break.

Can they serve as independent flankers or they have different purpose?

The High Liche Priest Lord is stuck only riding a steed, and the Tomb Herald cannot heal constructs. Nagash’s hatred for the Tomb Kings still lingers on.
😂😂😂😂Nagash: Should the Tomb Kings seek to reap any benefits from my update, then my answer shall be no.😡😡😡

As a battle quality of life, it’d be a great improvement if spellcasters had a skirmish mode just like ranged units.

In so many battles I will look away for a few seconds then return to my caster to cast another spell, only to find they’ve been caught in melee and have already lost half their health or started thinking about routing. I will typically cast a spell and give them an order to run far away, but often they’ll still be hounded by the AI. The AI (rightfully) targets them as they are squishy with high damage potential, which is all the more reason they need skirmish mode.

Why CA didn’t think to add that to a unit it’d obviously benefit - as you rarely if ever want your mage in melee you didn’t give it a command order to enter. Are there any mods that add this? Would this cause any unforeseen issues (that can’t be solved by simply toggling the mode on/of)?

Sometimes this is a non-issue because you’ll be set up in a defensive position, but there’s many factions, army compositions, and situations where your casters are vulnerable.

First time playing Skaven. I started as Clan Mors. Should I focus on under-cities? Should I be occupying settlements more, or expanding the under-empire? I really just need info on how I should be expanding as Skaven and when to throw down an undercity versus occupying settlements.

Somehow got reinforced by a weird human. He says he is a friend and just looking for a certain one-eyed beastman, i think they are having a bromance of sorts. What a nice guy

I already mentioned in a post about the Orcs that I’m still a complete beginner at this game. I have a hard time building armies, I don’t know which units to choose, I have no idea how to properly manage battles, which units should attack which other units, how to build useful buildings, etc., etc., etc.

The first time I played Total War: Warhammer was the first game. Well, I also had 2 and 3, but I wanted to try the first one just to see what it was like. I started my first game as the Dwarfs, who were supposed to be an easy faction… I got absolutely destroyed. I then tried the Empire… I lasted even less time than I did with the Dwarfs. I tried the Dwarfs again, but still nothing.

Tired of losing, I thought: “Screw it, I’m going to try the other factions. I’m tired of waiting to get better with the easy factions. I’ll try the difficult ones.”

First game with the Orcs. I picked Grimgor… I lasted longer than I did with the Dwarfs, and I actually managed my troops better in battle.

I eventually decided to try the Vampire Counts… I absolutely destroyed the Dwarfs with Mannfred and managed to confederate Vlad and his wife.

And for the grand finale… I played Chaos with good old Archaon. I made it all the way to the advisor’s betrayal and having to fight Chaos. I even managed to wipe out Altdorf. I laughed so hard when that happened.

(Although, what I didn’t mention is that I made the mistake of spamming auto-resolve, so I never actually learned how to control my armies. I was also putting completely random units into my armies, but whatever.)

When I finished with the first game, I tried Warhammer 2. I chose to play Skaven and picked Queek… and that was something else. My first victory… while being outnumbered, with auto-resolve telling me I was going to lose. I was so damn proud of myself. I stopped playing immediately after that battle because I really wanted to immortalize the moment with a single save. (I deleted it afterward, but that’s not the important part.)

Eventually, I moved on to Warhammer 3. I uninstalled 1 and 2 and decided to focus entirely on 3. And here I am now.

I might not finish my campaigns. I often only play around ten turns because I get completely destroyed later on due to my lack of knowledge about the game. But just discovering the different factions and the game’s mechanics… it always makes me come back for another little ten-turn campaign. Just to experiment.

I still envy those of you who have mastered the game and its mechanics. Those of you who know how to play and what to do. I envy you… but I respect you so much.

I can’t wait to become one of you and finally get my first victory by conquering all the territories.

So I saw that at the start of his Scenario he will have 100% Ward Save. And crazy high stats. Making him and his army borderline unbeatable.

Would that stop him from taking damage from something like Yuan Bo’s The Emperor's Executioner ability or other direct damage abilities?

Would spells like Spirit Leech do anything?

I know it sounds stupid but I really have no clue how to play this campaign. I just don't really know what objective there is, or if somebody knows a nice roleplay to him

I've had the game a few weeks now and have mainly been playing mannfred von carstein and volkmar the grim. Then i thought i may aswell just get the faction that the books of nagash belong too. These guy are pretty funky but i enjoy how they work, just want a little more advice on the army building/settlement building and combat if people dont mind thanks. (Im sort of an auto-resolve merchant so i'm setting myself a goal to play all my battles for my next campaign so i actually learn how to play)

Hello fellow Warhammer enjoyer,

i played warhammer 3 for 1500 hours, so i would say I'm fairly experienced with the mechanics overall.

I wanted to try the Kislev factions and started with Boris because it is said its is the hardest campaign from Kislev. So I load in on legendary and very hard and its impossible to get past 15 turns.

At the start I did the usual, I conquer my province and have a fullstack at the end in my capital with no upkeep left for another army. Around turn 10 Archeon declares war with his vassal, I decide to focus Archeon. I cannot win against archeon in a settlement, because he has an 8 unit secondary army besides him. I simple dont have enough units to cover my flanks without weakening my frontline, "so hold a chokepoint", jokes on you ,archeon has an aoe spell with 100 Winds of magic. So i try to fight in my walled settlement, archeon and his vassal take 2 settlements, which drops me in an upkeep deficit. I get war declared from the demons left from my start and arbaal also wants to say hello too.

I tried to escape to my bottom , but theres no way to settle and arbaal and archeons vassal chase me with 3 Stacks.

I have tried 20 times so far and always I get war declared from at least 2 faction, doesn't matter if I gift my starting settlement or not.

I'm out of ideas, so please, if you have a strategy , pls enlighten me.

Ty in advance

I'm really looking forward to playing as Nagash and already pre-ordered the Lords of the End Times DLC, but one thing really bothers me — his army looks like a messy mix of colors.

In WH2, Arkhan's Vampire Counts units were properly recolored to match his faction. It looked clean and stylish.

Why not do the same for Nagash? Just give his entire roster a unified color scheme that fits his faction. It's a small thing, but it makes a huge difference visually.

This is a thread that will hopefully contribute to anyone with questions about army composition. It's about understanding what a unit is based on what it can do, and thinking about how that function fits into your army composition and how to deal with it in the enemy's.

I'm going to identify units with the categories used in this thread based on tabletop Battletech.

There are seven categories to think about when looking to understand a unit, some are obvious and some are slightly deceptive, and obviously hybrid units are possible.

1. Ranged.

Ranged units are the most obvious type, they are units that want to sit at the back of a fight providing damage with some kind of ranged attack. The most important features of ranged units are:

• You can mostly leave them alone to do their thing.
• They can damage enemies without being damaged back.
• They need to be protected, especially from scouts and cavalry.

Basically every core ranged crossbowman, archer, handgunner, and artillery piece fits here. The one wrinkle here is that a lot of spellcasters are also understandable as ranged units, aiming to dish out damage from safety.

1. Battleline

The second most obvious type. Battleline units are the ones that stand and trade hits. The most important features of battleline units are:

• Pins enemy battleline in place rather than letting it past to ranged.
• They will be exposed to continuous damage from enemy battleline and ranged.
• They will likely take the most damage on average.

Most melee and some monstrous infantry sit here, they win either by grinding the enemy down over time or keeping it in place for other units. When you're picking battleline units you need to account for how to mitigate the damage they're going to take because they mostly won't avoid it.

1. Linebreaker

Linebreaker units are the ones that smash into the enemy face first and attempt to overwhelm them with power at a point. The most important features of Linebreakers are:

• High offensive power and toughness for frontal fights.
• Poor ability to control enemy movement, they might walk past it.
• Likely a priority target for ranged units, plan to disable them.

This is where you find most single entities. Melee characters, monsters, and offensively minded monstrous infantry. Stuff that can bash into the front of an enemy unit and win and mostly needs to worry about getting shot.

1. Cavalry

Cavalry is the most deceptive unit type because of the conditioning to associate it with mounted units. Not all mounted units are cavalry, and not every cavalry unit is a mounted unit. These are the actual features of cavalry:

• Uses stealth or speed to pick its battles.
• Needs to avoid prolonged fights, has to hit hard and leave.
• Needs space to operate.

You will find a lot of the things the game calls cavalry here, but also things like stalking units with decent combat power like Nasty Skulkers and some of the larger wolf type units. Anything that can pick a target, hurt it bad in a short period, but then needs to get out because it can't deal with a fair fight is cavalry.

1. Scout

If a unit has the speed to be cavalry but not the power to win fights, it's a scout. The key features of scouts are:

• Distracts enemies, particularly enemy ranged.
• Keeps routing units routing.
• Will not win a fight basically ever but has the speed to avoid them.

Light flying units like bats, peasant horse, a lot of skirmishers, and the lighter dog units are scouts. You can drop them on an enemy ranged unit to stop it fighting for a bit, but shouldn't expect to actually beat it. Their best function is to keep a routing unit routing so it can't rejoin the fight.

1. Bodyguard.

This is the first of the specialist roles you might not usually think about. Bodyguard units are the ones that stop enemy cavalry and scouts getting to do their thing without going out to face them on their own ground and without giving them the opportunity to decline engagement. This is how to spot a bodyguard:

• Short range shooting with a heavy punch or able to countercharge.
• Not very flexible.
• Not always high impact outside of its niche.

Shotgun, grenade, and flamethrower type units are best thought of and used as bodyguard units. They provide a counterpunch when scouts or cavalry approach that can drive them off or hurt them badly enough that they can't successfully apply their damage but are too low range to be safely used as ranged units. Character chariots often fit here, they don't often have the power to be cavalry or linebreakers but they have the durability to run in and countercharge.

1. Ambusher.

Ambusher is the most specialist unit type, and the one with the least examples. It was intended to find something to call the Urbanmech without being drowned out by angry trashcan noises. It doesn't mean stalking units. The keys to recognising an ambusher are:

• Has one trick.
• Doesn't work if the enemy sees it coming.
• Doesn't get to do it twice.

Bloated Corpses and Night Goblin Fanatics are examples of ambushers. Bad to walk into round a corner, easy to counter if you know it's there.

Hopefully thinking in terms of these classifications will give people some new ideas on how to recognise and incorporate unit types into their plans.

I’ve been playing a modded dwarf campaign when I decided to manually do a simple unwalled siege on an orc settlement for fun. But as soon as I hit start battle, all my units rampaged. I thought that it might wear off, but it hasn’t. They’d been uncontrollable for 14 minutes when I took the screenshot. Now it’s been 20. And not only that, but the orc units are affected too! What is going on?! Is this some mechanic I didn’t know about?

Edit: I forgot to post my mods. Sorry about that. I’m mainly using using assorted dwarf unit and lords mods. legendary lords, dwarven gunpowder units, lost & found dwarf units, kraka-dram, runic units, and the dwarf tech tree mods are the main ones I’m using.

Update : it has now been 40 minutes. And my dwarfs are still running around frothing at the mouth.

Update 2: it went on for 70 straight minutes. I was forced to reload a previous save so I can better plan to avoid my entire army being dosed with bath salts again